by Newcastle Falcons’ advisory director of rugby Steve Diamond has confirmed the club are considering investment from Saudi Arabia as they prepare to make drastic cuts to their squad.
The Gallagher Premiership base are preparing to cut up to 20 players in a streamlining exercise over the next two weeks as they look to stabilize their financial situation.
However, Saudi investment in Newcastle could be on the horizon. Telegraph Sport revealed in January that Leicester Tigers, Gloucester, Northampton Saints and Newcastle were in discussions with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF) over seven-figure investments in the clubs.
The Saudis’ sporting influence on Newcastle – already significant and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund which owns Newcastle – could now expand.
“Our owner Semore Kurdi was going to meet with important people from Saudi Arabia with Newcastle aiming to help them build a rugby academy over there to attract sevens competitions. They are coming to a Leicester, Bath or Sale game to get a feel for it,” Diamond told Telegraph Sport.
“It’s early days but hopefully this will lead to some form of partnership. Fingers crossed. Watch this space.
“If the owners of Newcastle United wanted to invest in Newcastle rugby, I’m sure we would all listen. The salary of one of the players could enable us to win the competition.”
The Saudis are starting to divert resources to rugby at grassroots level with the Ministry of Education adding the sport to the PE curriculum earlier this month.
Sevens is a particular focus as it is an Olympic discipline but exploratory discussions have been held about potential investment in the Premier Division.
Without him, Newcastle, already operating on the smallest budget in the Premier League, have been kept afloat by Kurdi, a Jordanian businessman with a passion for rugby, as 2011 emerges from even more cuts.
“It’s not like the situation in Worcester or London Irish. He has no fear that it will disappear as the others have gone but equally the investor wants to run it as economically as possible while still being competitive. What we’re doing now is how to run it as sustainably as possible,” said Diamond, who will take charge of his first Premier League game for the club at Exeter on Saturday.
“At the moment the squad, with the academy, is 50+, and that’s going to be reduced to 34 so you don’t have to be the first to work out the maths between 15 and 20 players will be leaving.
“That’s for two reasons. One, I don’t think they are good enough to achieve the standard we want and two, the financial situation requires that we are going to spend 50 percent of what the rest will spend.
“I’ve said to the lads that we’ll get these first two games out of the way and sit there and be honest and straight with them. It’s unfair because people have families and this is their livelihood. It’s the dirty end of the stick. Some people will be upset, some people will be expecting it but we have to give them as many opportunities as possible to get another contract if it’s not with Newcastle.”
The coaching staff is not safe either. They are also on trial.
“If you have an inexperienced team languishing at the bottom of the league you have to work on your coaching,” he said. “They have a quality team here. The jury is out on one or two. This period will be an opportunity to showcase their wares and deliver their message.”
Diamond believes a make-and-repair model can be competitive even without investment in the desert. It’s the same one he employed during his early years at Sale when the Sharks consistently faced financial reality.
“There are a lot of similarities,” he said. “What we have to do is outperform the other recruiting teams and have a sharp academy. We can do that.”
In the short term he is working practically with training, with the intention of hardening Newcastle with an emphasis on what the ex-husband refers to as “legal violence”.
A friendly win at Sale during the Premier League break suggests his methods are having an impact.
“You can only use pregnancy – we need skill and grit – but you can make up for a lack of quality with hard work,” he said.
“Even though it was a friendly event we put on a really great performance at Sale. Over the last few years Newcastle have lost the fight and we didn’t this time.
“We didn’t cry and cry afterwards but it sets us up well for Exeter.”
With six games remaining, Newcastle are fighting to save face. They could become the first London Welsh team in 2014/15 to end a season without winning a league game.
“That’s not going to happen,” Diamond insisted.
